This invention relates to a recumbent bicycle particularly to an improvement therein whereby the hands of the rider can be used in an effective manner for both propulsion and for steering of the bicycle.
In the early years of bicycle development very many proposals were made for arrangement of bicycle which used pedal propulsion or hand operated propulsion and in some cases propulsion by both techniques. However, over the years most of these peculiar designs fell by the wayside leaving bicycle design basically in a single pattern with the rider sitting well above the wheels having simple handle bars in front of the saddle and generally at the same height as the saddle and with the propulsion being provided by pedals positoned well below both the handle bars and the saddle and approximately midway between. This design has almost completely superseded any other type of design and differences between various models are generally so small as to be hardly discernible.
However in recent years some attention has been given to an alternative design generally known as a recumbent bicycle in which the seat includes a back rest against which the rider can lean and the pedals are positioned well forwardly of the seat so that reaction from the pedals can be directed by the rider into the back rest. One example of a bicycle of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,070 and this patent is concerned with the positioning of the handle bars relative to the seat. In this arrangement the handle bars are positoned beneath the seat so the rider steers beneath him by linkage communicating the movement of the handle bars to the front wheel which is mounted in forks in conventional manner.
This bicycle has achieved some success and has a number of advantages over the conventional arrangement.
The steering arrangement is somewhat inconvenient in its positioning in that the rider is required to reach down beneath him and furthermore there is no provision for hand propulsion which is rendered a greater practical possibility in view of the fact that the reaction from the pedals is communicated into the back of the seat as opposed to the conventional arrangement where the reaction from the pedals is communicated to the hands of the rider which grasp the handle bars.
It is one object of the invention therefore to provide a recumbent bicycle in which propulsion from both pedals and hand operated levers can be provided while allowing the levers also to be used in a most convenient manner for steering of the front wheel of the bicycle.
Accordingly the invention provides a recumbent bicycle comprising a frame, a single front wheel mounted on said frame for pivotal steering movement, a rear wheel mounted on said frame, a seat having a back rest allowing the occupant to lean against the back rest, a pair of pedals arranged forwardly of the seat such that the occupant can communicate reaction from the pedals into the back rest, a chain wheel and drive chain communicating drive from the pedals to the rear wheel, a pair of levers extending in a generally upward direction, arranged forwardly of the seat and pivotal about a horizontal axis transverse to the bicycle for manual movement fowardly and rearwardly in opposed phase, means for communicating drive from said levers to said rear wheel, said levers being mounted for common manually operated pivotal movement about an axis longitudinally of the bicycle and means for communicating said common pivotal movement to said front wheel for steering movement thereof.
It is one advantage of the invention therefore that the rider sits in the seat with the levers immediately in front of him which can be operated to propel the bicycle and yet can very readily be tilted from side to side to obtain steering movement of the bicycle.
It is a further advantage of the invention that the levers communicate drive to the rear wheel of the bicycle through a chain wheel which drives the pedal chain wheel as opposed to an arrangement in which the levers directly drive the pedals thus providing a more efficient and smoother drive linkage between the hand levers and the rear wheel.